


The Future Effects of Eating Peaches

by Ninj



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 05:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6599185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninj/pseuds/Ninj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years ago Sarah Williams ate a peach while trying to get her brother back. Five years later she still feels it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Future Effects of Eating Peaches

**Author's Note:**

  * For [catandmouse10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/catandmouse10/gifts).



> For the prompt: 
> 
> Sarah/Jareth + Believe

One of the best known legends of fairy is that if you eat their food you become a part of fairy. As it turns out, the labyrinth is a part of fairy. And cursed peaches counted double. Sarah had been aware, she'd just had other things on her mind at the time she took a bite of the peach. Now, five years later, if you asked Sarah what the biggest mistake of her life was, she could tell you easily. Eating the peach. Yes, even more so than wishing Toby away in the first place. Toby was fine, Sarah was not. 

“Sarah,” Elizabeth breaks her out of her musings suddenly. “You don’t like peaches.” 

Sarah comes back to herself standing in the farmers market with her roommate staring at a display of peaches. Right, she’s supposed to be shopping. “Sorry, just haven’t had enough coffee.”

Sarah follows her roommate trying to find a way to anchor her thoughts in the here and now. She’s an expert on meditation, on grounding exercises and she has to believe it will be enough. Every day she believes it’s enough to keep her here, and so far it works.

Later that night Elizabeth is out at study group and Sarah is studiously ignoring the white owl in the tree outside their apartment. Really though, you can only refuse to acknowledge a monarch for so long before he send his minions to fuck up your shit. He doesn’t even have the courtesy to send her friends. Jareth has never handled rejection well. 

After five minutes of hearing her kitchen re-arranged she reluctantly opens her window. Never one to miss a dramatic entrance there are feathers, blowing curtains and the usual explosion of glitter. Her kitchen falls suspiciously silent. 

“Why must you always defy me?” Jareth drapes himself over their floral love seat like it’s a throne. 

“In this case, I was just trying to ignore you,” Sarah answers going back to the floor and her halfhearted attempt at studying, it’s harder with him here. “But, defiance is a five year old habit that’s hard to break.”

“Just once,” Jareth starts to say, but pauses. “It is exhausting to fight with you all the time.”

Sarah simply hums her agreement. They’re not friends, they fight too much to be friends, and he’ll never be her king, but they’re something. Five years of semi-regular visits as Sarah continues to defy the laws of fairy and bring disgrace to his kingdom makes them something. 

“A month,” Jareth gets down to what he came for-demanding her time in the labyrinth. “After finals.”

Sarah’s head whips up in disbelief and shock. She’s about to respond in outraged denial when she bites the words back on her tongue. She swallows a lot of words back now, she has to. She breaths, she chants to herself. 

“I’ve never gone longer than two weeks,” Sarah settles on saying. It’s good, it doesn’t call into question her abilities and it reinforces her commitment to being in this realm. She very carefully manages to ask. “Why so long?”

“The novelty is wearing off,” Jareth answers. Sarah suspects it wore off for him the moment she got her brother back. “And I’m really not sure how much longer you can hold back anyway.”

Somedays Sarah does feel so thin. So fragile. Her connection to the mortal plain is something she’s held for five years strictly through the power of her belief, and Jareth’s lack of control over her. It’s unheard of for a human to escape fairy once it claims you. And Sarah has always felt the strain. Jareth has no power over her, but fairy owns a part of her. It’s indisputable. 

“Two weeks, twice,” Sarah counter offers because she wants to control this negotiation. She’ll give him as much of what he wants as she can because fighting is getting harder. “Right after finals and right before school starts up again.”

“Summer and winter solstice,” Jareth sits up looking less bored. Looking somewhat feral. 

“No,” Sarah says flatly. The power of the solstice is wild, and to be avoided. She gives herself fleeting moments to recognize the danger there. She cocks her head a little meeting Jareth’s eyes and continuing, “That’s a lot of fluctuating..”

Sarah trails off even as Jareth maintains eye contact. There’s a gleam in his eyes that hasn’t been there in years. A gleam that says he just might have found a way to win. 

“Summer solstice then,” Jareth compromises. It’s not a compromise at all if you know what to look for. “You can handle that challenge, can’t you Sarah?”

Sarah is somewhat certain she sounds like an angry cat. An angry cat that has to be very careful what they do next. “I could. But we agreed years ago I was out of place at the solstice. That I might even be destructive. Wanna risk it?” 

“Yes,” Jareth answers looking even more pleased. “I let you avoid your duties for as long as I can. But you don’t belong here anymore.”

“I believe I do,” Sarah answers. And that’s they key. That’s what protects her. Her mantra that he has no power over her, and that she belongs here. At school, at home, wherever she is, she belongs here. She can go to the labyrinth, but she belongs to this realm. Jareth knows, they both know that it is entirely how stubborn she is that’s keeping her from becoming a guardian of the labyrinth. A lesser fae. And how long can she live in the labyrinth before surrendering to its king? 

Not once has Jareth said he has any interest in being her king, but he’s never been anything less than insistent that she belongs in the labyrinth. And everything in the labyrinth is his. He’s never been able to make her do anything, but he’s remarkably successful in his manipulations. 

“Solstice,” Jareth repeats standing and striding over to hold her in place. He purrs caressing down her arm “Come to solstice Sarah. See who has the stronger will now.” 

He strides right back out the window like it’s a done deal. Of course he does. He believes it is.


End file.
